March 2, 2004

Japan Requires Mandatory Reporting Of Suspected Bird Flu Cases
 
The Japanese authorities are now requiring the mandatory reporting of suspected bird flu cases in the country following a fresh unreported outbreak.
 
The ministry will also set up a system for compensating farmers in regions subject to shipment bans or other quarantine measures.
 
Under the current regulations based on the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, reporting an outbreak of a livestock disease to the ministry becomes mandatory only when a third party, such as a public health official, confirms it as suspicious.
 
In addition, only farmers who have destroyed livestock under government orders can qualify for compensation. Consequently, farmers who lose sales because a neighboring farm had an outbreak receive nothing.
 
By clearly making it the responsibility of farmers to report suspect cases early, the ministry hopes to stop the disease from spreading. And by compensating neighboring farmers, it hopes to gain more cooperation in its disease containment efforts.
 
The new guidelines are expected to be drawn up at a meeting of the ministry's poultry disease subcommittee this week and come into effect by the end of this month.
 
Last week, a farm in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture, was found to have shipped chickens that may have been affected by avian influenza, better known as bird flu, to a meat processor in Hyogo Prefecture.
 
The farm is said to have suspected that its stock had been infected because of the large number of dying birds. But it wasn't obligated to report its suspicion to the authorities under current regulations.